


a star crossing the sky

by tealmoon



Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: ? - Freeform, Alternate Universe - Outerfell, Alternate Universe - Underswap, Angst, Body Horror, Explicit Sexual Content, First Meetings, I swear, M/M, Panic Attacks, Sad Ending, Undertale Saves and Resets, Unrequited Love, honeymustard - Freeform, these stylistic choices are on purpose
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-21
Updated: 2018-07-31
Packaged: 2019-05-26 15:45:06
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 11,063
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15004103
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tealmoon/pseuds/tealmoon
Summary: There’s a skeleton in Snowdin Woods, someone Papyrus has never seen before. There’s a skeleton in Snowdin Woods, someone Papyrus has never seen before. There’s a skeleton in Snowdin Woods, someone Papyrus has never seen before.For Red, the only thing worse than living through this would be giving up.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * For [0neType](https://archiveofourown.org/users/0neType/gifts).



> Happy birthday Type, you wonderful sweetheart!! (｡’▽’｡)♡ Have some sad space-honeymustard nonsense. Part two will be written.... at some point. Fuck, I dunno. 
> 
> I don't think I can ever put into words how much you inspire me as a friend and fellow writer.

He’s groggy when he finally wakes up, and that would be normal enough if he wasn’t also turned on. He doesn’t need to glance down to know he’s all sticky in the nether-regions, the wisps of a sex dream disintegrating as he lobs a bone at the alarm clock and misses. No real point, since Sans would just rebuild it, but it’s become a habit.

It was a nice dream, too. The face is lost to him, but there had been a rough voice, grunting and praising him, a body weighing his down without crushing him. Lights above them. His pubic symphysis throbs, promising to reform into the pussy of his dream, but Sans is calling from downstairs, and he doesn’t want to be caught rubbing one out.

One cold shower later, and the details of the dream have all shriveled up. It’s all that spider cider; it’s so sweet it’s hard to keep track of how much you’ve had. Had he managed to keep it in his pants until bedtime, or is he a horny drunk? Will the other café regulars have a laugh about it when he shows up again?

Once he’s cleaned up, it’s a morning like most mornings. Sans is rushing around the kitchen, throwing together breakfast before they have to head into Snowdin Forest for work. That’s for the best: after what might’ve happened last night, grabbing something about Muffet’s would probably be an embarrassment. Better to let that cool off for a few hours.

They eat, walk part of the way to work together, then go their separate ways. The cold air doesn’t quite wake him up, but he’s a little less groggy, and going with Sans forces him to actually exercise instead of using a shortcut. The routine is pleasant for being so early in the morning.

But...

There’s a skeleton in Snowdin Woods, standing on the edge of the path and leaning against a tree. There’s a cigarette in his hand and from the haze in the air, it’s probably not his first. He’s someone Papyrus has never seen before.

Now, he didn’t claim to know everyone in the Underground, hardly a social butterfly, but a stranger that just happened to be in his (extremely rare) monster subtype? It’s only natural to be interested, and he has time before he’s supposed to be at his station, and more time before anyone would be around to check on him. Is he lost? Did he need to be led back to town?

This guy may have been a tourist from one of the other regions, but he’s dressed for the snow, arguably better than Papyrus. The fluff on the hood of his coat looks so soft that his hand twitches, about to reach out and touch before he remembers how creepy that would be. Can’t go petting people you haven’t said two words to, even dog monsters. The shock of seeing another skeleton is clearly messing with his head.

Instead, he nods to the cigarette dangling from his fingers. “Can I get a light, pal?” A trick Sans had taught him, after the disapproval over his smoking cooled off: people would feel more positive towards him at the thought of giving a favor, even if it was minor. Didn’t matter that he had a lighter in his pocket, if it made people feel warm and fuzzy over helping. It’s a wide gap between that and actually making a friend, but every little bit helped, and he wants whatever advantage he can get with this guy.

He seems a little intimidating up close, with scarring over one eye socket and a mouthful of jagged teeth, but that mouth (which he can’t help staring at) widens into a sharp, somehow inviting grin. Technically skeletons are always ‘smiling,’ but this seems more sincere. “Sure thing. C’mere.” He’s beckoned closer, his own unlit smoke waiting between his teeth, but instead of getting out a lighter, the stranger leans forward to light it with the end of his own. When he’s that close, Papyrus can smell burnt metal and oil underneath the smoke. A mechanic?

The effect of it leaves him flustered, and he focuses on taking a drag to calm himself down. From the grin on this guy’s face, it doesn’t seem like it worked. “Never seen you around here,” Papyrus offers. “You new in Snowdin?”

“You could say that.” The monster gives him a once-over, and he feels weirdly small, despite having a good six inches on him. “Care to show a stranger the sights? I could use a tour guide.”

“Me? I mean, you could probably find someone better for that in town. My bro is great at that sort of thing...”

“Nah, I could ask any of them, but you seem like a guy with a good head on your shoulders. I’m asking you.” He stubs out his cigarette on the bottom of his sneaker and holds out his hand, now that it’s free. “The name’s Red. You?”

Is he just dense, or is he being flirted with? His words are all pretty neutral, but was that a wink just now? “I’m Papyrus, or just Paps or Papy to my friends.” Well, to just Sans, but he wants to sound approachable. “And...I’m gonna be doing sentry work for a while, so there’s not much I can show you without leaving my station, unless you’re really into trees.”

“I can be patient. I’m sure there’s plenty you can tell me about to get me all hyped up. Or I can go entertain myself for a few hours and wait for you to be done. Your choice.”

He shrugs and begins to walk, and the stranger— _Red_ — follows beside him. “If you’re really not gonna get bored, then you can come along, or leave whenever.” Could he really talk enough to to keep this guy entertained? He could show off some of his puzzles...

His slide puzzle is covered with snow, like it always is whenever he checks on it, but Red seems intrigued as he points out the design it’s supposed to show: the view of the castle from Waterfall. Heating coils might help keep it clear, he realizes, noting it on his phone. It’d be a lot more impressive if the puzzle-solver didn’t have to brush off the snow first...

Probably he’s faking it, but Red seems really interested in his puzzles, asking about the mechanics of the setup as they walk the rest of the way. “We don’t really make that sort of thing back home. Really well made.” As much as he’d like to stand around and talk about puzzle construction, he’d get a reprimand if someone caught him showing up late.

“You didn’t actually try it though, can you really say that?”

“I’ll tell you what. Once you’re done and we go back to town, I’ll complete it then.” There’s a second stool underneath the counter, in case someone patrolling needs to sit down. He sets it out for Red, only for him to hop up onto the station counter instead. It’s unnerving, having him so close, but... not in a bad way?

“Uh, just so you know, my brother usually comes around at about noon to check up on me.” Did that sound childish, or was it normal? Would Red be so charmed by Sans that he’d want him as a tour guide instead? On one hand, you couldn’t find someone better for the job, and it’d be less effort on his part, but... He kind of wants to make that effort himself. “He patrols Snowdin Forest with the rabbits, so he’s in the area. Plus he’s probably gonna be hyped to meet another skeleton.” And he didn’t think he could get along with someone who didn’t want to meet Sans.

“I’m fine meeting your bro, yeah.” It’s probably weird to start detailing just how cool Sans is, when they’re going to meet soon and he’ll see for himself, but luckily Red changes the subject. “I’m not used to the snow, how do you guys deal with this?” He knocked his shoes against the side of the station, trying to clear them, and Papyrus could distract himself by talking about the blizzard last year.

As usual, he can hear Sans well before he comes into view, shouting his arrival. “Papyrus, you forgot your lunch again! One day I’m going to be too busy to come deliver it, and then you’ll have to eat snow and tree bark, and you’ll get hypothermia and splinters between your teeth! And—huh?”

He notices Red in the same moment that he comes into view, and Papyrus can almost see the gears turning. Sans has a way of knowing everybody, so it’s weird to see him this surprised. Red must not have been in town long, or Sans would have definitely run into him by now.

“Could’ve just gone to Muffet’s for lunch, bro,” Papyrus says.

“That’s neither here nor there!” Sans recovers easily, bounding through the snow towards them. More interested in this new monster, he drops the lunchbox in front of Papyrus and focuses on Red. “Are you new in town? I am the Magnificent, Indomitable Sans, and you’ve clearly met my brother Papyrus.” Oh, two adjectives, he definitely wanted to impress.

“Visiting for a while, from Hotland, yeah. The name’s Red.” He holds out a hand covered in silver rings, and Sans eagerly shakes with him. “I’m staying at the Snowed Inn, but I only settled in yesterday.”

“What!” Sans mock-scowls. “Not to insult the dogs, who are wonderful monsters, but I can’t imagine you get much sleep there. I’m sure you’ve already heard it; they get so excited about new customers that I don’t know how anyone can sleep through all the barking and howling. And we don’t really have ears to plug.”

Now that Papyrus thinks about it, that’s probably the source of the shadows under his sockets. “Mostly picked it for the name, to be honest. They’re good dogs, just loud.”

As they’re talking, he tries to carefully unpack his lunch without dumping taco fillings everywhere, and he offers one over to Red who takes it without an apparent thought about the mess. Maybe that’s what elevates Red in Sans’s eyes, because he slaps his hands down on the station counter. “There’s an obvious solution and that is that you can stay over at our place!”

Papyrus nearly chokes on a bit of lettuce. “Really, bro? I mean, not that I mind, but...” But letting a stranger stay at the house seems a bit intense when they’ve only just met him, right?

“He’s clearly a skeleton of taste and decency! And clearly the two of you are getting along well enough that I don’t see why it’d be a problem. Red, if you’re alright with it, we do have an inflatable mattress and a lot of spare blankets, and it’d be a good deal quieter. If you’d like to stay for a few days, our home is your home. Skeletons should support each other in this day and age.”

“I’m gonna be staying ‘round for a week, if that would change your mind.”

“Don’t worry! As long as you don’t blow up the house, a week is just fine with me. And with you, Papy?”

“Uh, if you’re okay with it, Red, at least we don’t charge?” He has to wonder if that was a good idea; if Red likes him now, he might not once he sees the mess, or the way Sans sometimes has to scream to get him off to work, or the Annoying Dog that lives under the sink. It’ll be harder to keep up a cool, potential friend facade, but he doesn’t want to turn him down.

“Then it’s settled,” Sans cheered, clapping his gloved hands together. “Papyrus, when you’re done with work, you’ll help bring Red’s luggage back from the inn, alright?”

Before he could argue that Sans was the one who tried to bench-press boulders, so _he_ should be the one carrying suitcases, not Papyrus, Red shrugs. “I packed light. Basically all I brought is what’s on me or in my storage. You can come with when I give back my room key, at least. And you gotta show me that puzzle, right?”

“I’ll see you in a few hours, then! I’ll make sure to set you up with plenty of blankets; it does get a bit chilly at night. I’d love to stay and chat, but I have more patrol to do, and we’ll have plenty of time for conversation later.” Waving furiously, Sans plunges back through the snow and is soon out of sight.

“Kinda energetic, isn’t he,” Red muses. “Just looking at him makes me feel tired, but in a good way.” He polishes off the taco in his hand, licking salsa off his fingers, and Papyrus is lucky that the counter shields his crotch from view. They’ve only just met and he’s getting a boner over this guy? “I do appreciate you guys letting me stay.”

“Sure thing, we’re always ready to help a cool skeleton in need. When we get back, I gotta show you the café in town...”

-

It’s actually nice, having Red around. He worried about how the house would seem to Red, at first, but nothing seems to phase him: not Sans’s culinary adventures, or the dog squirming into his blankets to share warmth, or the mess in Papyrus’s room (though he did try to clear out the dirty dishes, so it didn’t seem quite so horrible).

At about day three, he has to wonder if Red isn’t sticking around just for a tour guide. There isn’t all that much to see in Snowdin, even if you included the forest in that. He’s dried up everything he can think to show off, but Red ate it all up and didn’t leave. Does he like Papyrus? Could they be friends? Are they friends already?

There has to be something going on. An acquaintance wouldn’t show up at his bedroom door with a bunch of bags and an invitation to a picnic, and he’s so surprised that he gapes at Red, clinging to the door handle and wondering if Red had gotten the wrong skeleton brother and didn’t realize yet, somehow. Or the wrong house entirely.

He lifts the bags a little higher. “Got some beer, some pastries from Muffet’s. Some burgers from Hotland. A guy can’t live off sugar and condiments alone, because of course I’ve got those too.”

“A picnic? You’re serious?”

“Can’t get more serious than this. There’s this place in Waterfall...”

He’s so caught off guard that he doesn’t answer, and maybe that comes off as a no. “If you’re not interested, then—” Red says, half-turning away, and Papyrus hurries to stop him, hands up.

“Didn’t say _no_ , this is just... sudden. What if I had a sentry shift in a few minutes or something, huh? Prior engagements. Give a guy some warning.”

“But you don’t have work, and ‘didn’t say no’ means ‘kinda wanna say yes,’ am I right?” His tone is teasing now, as he holds the bag up and shakes it enticingly. “Cleared my schedule, so I’ve got all day if you need to make up your mind, babe.”

That last word is enough to make him retreat, shutting the door on Red on reflex. “Just lemme get dressed first, alright?” Papyrus calls through the door, so it’d seem a little less like he had just slammed it in Red’s face. From the laughter he can hear on the other end, apparently there’s no hard feelings. He has to lean against the wall to catch his breath, because ‘babe?’ Did that seriously just come out of Red’s mouth?

The few minutes it takes to find a clean hoodie and his scattered sneakers aren’t enough to prepare him, and he’s probably still blushing by the time he meets Red in the living room. It’s not something to get flustered by, right? It’s just a picnic with a temporary roommate and friend (?), nothing big.

“Ready?”

“Y-yeah. Lead the way.” Red seems to know his way around Waterfall, so maybe he had done a week of tourism there too?

....In only a few days, Red would be back in Hotland. Sure, Papyrus would see him if he happened to pass by his station/illicit cotton candy stand, but if that was likely, they would have met long before now. Hopefully they could keep up contact, but... he needed to make the most out of this time. It’s enough to get him to walk at Red’s side rather than trailing behind, and he’s close enough to snag one of those bags out of his loose grip.

“You really went all out, huh?” He definitely understated all the stuff he’s brought, and from that one bag alone, it looks like way more than a picnic for two skeletons, even if they gorge themselves.

“I’ve got more in my inventory too. Might as well make this a proper party.” Because he would be going away soon. Because they were running out of chances.

That’s a depressing thought, and he looks over the supply of beer, wondering if it would be enough to distract him. “No spider cider?”

“Nah, never really been a big fan of spiders, and I don’t want to bring you back all fucked up. Don’t think your brother would appreciate that.” Instead of leading them farther into Waterfall, Red stops them in the flower puzzle room. Papyrus finds himself freezing in disbelief as Red solves the puzzle leading to the little alcove that he thought only he knew.

“I can find somewhere else, but I don’t think anyone’s gonna bother us here.” He has to stop and consider it. He’s almost never gone to this part of Waterfall for happy reasons; it’s always been a place to chain-smoke until anxiety doesn’t squeeze his ribcage until it feels like it’s crumbling. It’s time to make more positive memories of it.

He can’t remember the last sound the Echo Flower copied from him, but it’s been replaced with humming that is unmistakably Red, a song that isn’t anything Papyrus recognizes. Hopefully when Red first discovered the place, he didn’t catch Papyrus sobbing or cursing at the flower. Or maybe they’re close enough that Red wouldn’t judge him for it.

Instead of sitting on the bench, Red unfurls one of the quilts that had been on his temporary mattress. “It’s not too muddy here, so I don’t think your bro would notice a thing if you hid it in the laundry.”

Papyrus unpacks the bags as Red spills out the contents of his inventory, and it’s definitely far more than he can imagine two skeletons eating in a single go. There’s not just regular donuts and eclairs but a whole pound cake, neatly boxed up. (If he keeps giving Muffet that much gold, Red would definitely replace him as her favorite skeleton.) Just from the size of the honey bottle Red hands him, it’s hard not to wonder if he’s being seduced with food.

It’s easy to forget that this will be over soon, trading jokes and increasingly garbage wordplay, nearly choking as they laugh with mouthfuls of food, Red’s knee brushing against his own. It’s worse when, now that they’re in the humid cool of Waterfall, Red slips off his jacket, letting Papyrus see a hint of his collarbone before he tugs up his shirt. His bare arms are covered in scars, and he wonders if he’ll ever get the chance to ask where it all came from. Without the bulk of his jacket, he’s much smaller, his bones thinner than Papyrus’s.

Undressing makes the bell on his necklace jingle, and though Papyrus is used to the noise now, it catches his eye. Without his coat to muffle it, it’s much louder, enough that the Echo Flower repeats it, replacing the last lines of their conversation. “So what’s the deal with the necklace? Didja sneak up on someone one too many times?”

For a moment, it seems like a misstep, and Red’s eyelights flicker, as dim as they can get without disappearing completely. He takes a drink of beer, seemingly to steady himself, and by the time he’s swallowed, that moment of discomfort seems gone or buried. Red flicks the bell, and it bounces against his chest. “Nah, not really. Someone... someone important to me gave me this. Said it’d make me look intimidatin’, though it comes off more as ‘pet cat’ than anything. But it made him happy, so I keep wearing it.”

“It’s cute. I mean—not in a pet way, just that—you know. Whenever I hear it, it’s kinda nice to go ‘oh hey, that’s Red.’ It’s nice knowing you’re around.”

He shakes his head. “You’re sweet, you know that? Gonna miss you when I go home.”

“Well... you can come back. If you have the time, you’re welcome at our house whenever. So it’s not a goodbye forever situation.”

For a moment, he thinks he’s done something wrong, from the way Red laughs, bitter and quiet, but then he leans forward, bracing himself on his hands. “It okay if I kiss you, sweetheart?”

Maybe it’s wrong. Maybe he shouldn’t be kissing skeletons he barely knows, but Red just feels right. It’s only been a few days, but that’s proven how funny and clever and kind he is. Instead of answering, Papyrus clears the space between them and clacks his teeth against Red’s. It’s too enthusiastic and just short of painful, but Red moves with him, gently pressing closer.

His tongue forms in his mouth without conscious thought, and he licks at Red before he can wonder if that’s going too far, exploring the outside of his teeth and the cold surface of his false fang. When he pulls back, he can see a flicker of magic in between Red’s parted jaw. “If you wanna do it like that, all you had to do is ask.”

The world narrows to just them, to the quilt bunching up underneath his back, the minimal weight of Red lying on top of him, tongues exploring mouths and then a lot more. Nothing else matters: not the half-full beer knocked over by a careless elbow, not the faint noises of monsters walking through the adjacent room, not the Echo Flower remembering the sounds they pull out of each other.

It’s hard to go back, after that. Things can’t _not_ change. They untangle and pack up the rest of the food, and it’s back home, Red’s hand brushing against his as they walk—not quite a hand-hold, but it has to be intentional. As Red fills their fridge with the leftovers, telling a protesting Sans that it’s his payment for them letting him stay, Papyrus is hyper-aware of the little bites left on his ribs and clavicle. How can he let Red leave in a few days, after this? Or it was just a fling, and Red would laugh if he knew Papyrus was doing the mental equivalent of writing his name in his school notebook, surrounded with little souls and stars.

Sans seems to pick up on it. His brother gives him a piercing look, glancing over little flaws that Papyrus didn’t notice at the time: Waterfall soil on his shorts, his hoodie not pulled up high enough to conceal a mark left on his vertebrae. He tried to stay still, not letting his hands betray him by fixing any of it.

From the way Sans glances between Papyrus and Red, whose back is turned as he fills their fridge, he clearly understands. But he doesn’t lecture, or make a fuss, or drag Papyrus into the other room to ask fervently if he remembered how soulings were made. Is that fraternal approval glittering in his eye sockets?

“Well,” Sans says, loud enough that Papyrus jumps. “It’s lucky you have all that left over. I’ll be spending the night at Alphys’s, so I won’t be around to cook dinner, but you won’t starve without my culinary brilliance. I’ll see you in the morning, Red, so you won’t have to bother getting him out of bed. Unless you really want to.”

As the two of them watch in confused silence, he speeds up the stairs and comes back down with an already packed overnight bag, all in the space of a few breaths. “I love you Papy, make good choices, bye!” He says in a rush and flees out the door.

Somehow, Red doesn’t seem embarrassed or mortified or anything but mildly amused. “Guess we’re not as stealthy as we hoped, right?”

Papyrus covers his face, wondering if he could sink between the couch cushions and disappear if he slumped enough. “He’s not usually like this, I swear. But... he didn’t give you an older brother lecture, so I guess he likes you?”

“It’s all that complimenting his cooking and bone attacks. I know the sort of stuff that makes a brother happy. Good on him for giving us some privacy, though.” That wink is going to be the death of him.

“I guess our picnic is now a sleepover? And... it’s only a little better than this,” he prodded the inflatable mattress with his foot, “but you could share my bed instead.” Is that too bold? After what they just did together, maybe not, but...

Red brightens up, so it’s clearly the right thing to say. He’ll have to go find clean sheets and blankets for it, since even with Sans’s best efforts, that mess isn’t something to subject a datemate to, but the idea of sleeping beside Red makes it worth it.

Well, sleeping and _other_ things.

They watch a movie and graze over the remainder of their picnic, sitting on Red’s mattress. At first, it’s shoulder to shoulder, but at twenty minutes in, Red relocates to his lap, his tailbone brushing against his pelvis, the fabric of their shorts barely disguising it. It’s definitely on purpose, from the way Red smirks back at him as he squirms closer. There’s no point in trying to disguise the magic that forms there almost immediately.

Movie forgotten, they soon relocate to Papyrus’s bed, adequately clean but not for long. Red seems to know all the places to touch him, bones that he didn’t know were sensitive until now. It’s a little embarrassing when he comes too soon, but it gives him plenty of time to explore Red’s body until they’re ready for round two.

In the morning, he’ll get Red’s phone number, his UnderNet username, his address—whatever it takes to keep up with him. He’s not going to let this slip through his fingers. For now, though, they still have time for Red to fit his body against Papyrus’s, hastily wiped down from the mess they had made of each other. It should be awkward sleeping right beside someone, but once the necessary fidgeting and adjustment is done, it feels natural? Red’s skull rests against his sternum, one hand idly hooking in Papyrus’s ribs.

It’s easy to fall asleep.

-

He can doze, but only for about as long as it takes for Pap to fall asleep. He doesn’t bother sleeping much at times like these; it’s a waste, when he needs to cling to every moment he can. It’s amazing that he hasn’t toppled over in exhaustion yet, but as long as he doesn’t fall off a cliff or something, it’s fine.

It takes a series of careful, precise movements to squirm out of Pap’s hold so that he can sit up on his elbows. The snow-light through the blinds and the glow of his bones are enough that he can see Pap easily, and he just watches for a while. He can’t get enough of this.

So, of course, it ends.

By now, he can pick up the faintest hints that this world is about to rewind itself. The air is suddenly heavy and cold, and the conversations of monsters outside seem to slow down to half speed. Can any of them tell what’s happening? But it doesn’t matter, not when they won’t remember.

Sometimes, loops last as long as months, and Pap has time to fully fall in love with him. Sometimes, it’s just the same day repeating hundreds of times, and he can’t bring himself to step in. Sometimes, like now, it’s just a week. From his perspective, it’s been the same week for a long, long time.

If he looks up, he could probably see the walls flickering, as a wave of nothing makes its way from the anomaly towards Snowdin, but he’d rather keep watching Pap’s face. He grimaces in his sleep, like he’s dreaming of what’s coming, but he won’t remember it. He won’t remember much of anything, including Red, but with all the repetitions, by now he sees a skeletal stranger and instinctively tries to get closer. Some stuff lingered underneath conscious memory, and sometimes, that was the only thing that kept him sane: part of Pap still knew him.

This world spits him out whenever it rewinds or remakes itself, and it feels like a tingling in his bones that’ll soon progress to burning. Red doesn’t belong in the picture, and he’s being punished for trying to paint himself in however many thousands of times.

But he watches Papyrus’s face. Doesn’t look up as the house dissolves into the void around them. Holds onto his hand until that’s gone too. It’s horrible to watch layers of bone flake away into nothing, until he can see the inside of Papyrus’s skull, the bone marrow inside of his arms and legs being exposed to the air, but he needs every second he can wring out of this fucking godawful temporal nightmare.

It lets him see the world getting erased, but he’s always shoved out before it’s redrawn. There’s a flash, the void becoming too bright to look at it, and then he literally falls back into his world, bones slamming against the floor. He’s done this so many times that he’s learned to put down rugs in his little lab, for all the good it does.

He’s home, and Pap is gone.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The design I'm imagining for outerfell Sans is the one seen here: buttercupsticksntricks.tumblr.com/post/152344206319, because he's such a floofy spaceboy.
> 
> Should outerfell characters have unique names or go by regular underfell nicknames?


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Bumped up the rating due to the sex scene not being as vague in this chapter.

He must have laid there for upwards of an hour, watching the light flicker above him. He used to be able to pick himself up, brush the dirt off, and jump right back in. It would be easier to remember his lines and everyone’s movements if he repeated the cycle immediately.

But exhaustion weighed him down, and the timeloop could go on without him for once. His bones ached from the gravity shift: constantly bouncing from a planet to the artificial gravity of home took a toll he wasn’t sure he wanted to think about. It was tempting to pass out on the rug, where he had dozens of times before, and he was about to squirm into a more comfortable position when he heard the airlock door sliding open.

Alphys, a sneaky fuck as always. The new locks were nothing on her, and he was fully aware that she had installed surveillance in here so she’d know when he came and went. Not exactly sure how or when she had done it, but there had to be multiple cameras in there. He could’ve ransacked the place to find them, but that was unnecessary work, and she’d only replace them with tinier ones and then mope and post veiled bullshit online about how she had lost a valuable friendship and everyone hated her.

Another door opened, and she wandered into the room and over to his side. “Get off the floor,” she said, prodding him with a foot. “And s-stop moping about your boyfriend!” As if she had any room to talk, with how she’d been mooning and sighing ever since Undyne was shipped out. Her tone was harsh, only half joking, but she still reached her hand down to help him up, his bones popping unpleasantly as he stumbled to his feet.

“Come have lunch with me, okay? If I leave you here on the floor, you’d probably starve out of boredom. Food isn’t good enough for Sans unless it’s from a planet, huh??”

“Awww, did you miss me, Al? Couldn’t stand to be away from me for even a minute?” He slung an arm around her shoulder, and she snorted. If he hadn’t been so wobbly, she might’ve pushed it away, but he wasn’t sure how long he’d be able to stand without her support.

It was better this way, having her know. Having one person in the world who knew his secret and didn’t drop him for it. If it wasn’t for Alphys, he would probably still be laying there, wondering if food was worth getting up again. Or he would have talked himself into heading back to see Pap again.

“Hardly! If anything, I wish you were gone for longer.” It was something he had adjusted to early on: time in Pap’s world and his weren’t one to one. A week in Pap’s world could be anything from a few hours to a day at home; a month was usually a few days. After a while, he had given up figuring out why they ran on different clocks and took it as the blessing it was: he had played out what felt like decades in Pap’s world, while it had only been a few years for him.

“Missed you too, babe. I’d bring you a souvenir, but they never last.” Not for lack of trying. It wasn’t his finest moment, stealing one of Pap’s shirts in the hope that he’d have something to hold at night (and jerk off to), but he had done it anyway. It had barely lasted an hour, vanishing the moment he had let it leave his sight. Stuff that he kept on him at all times would disappear once he couldn’t hold out any longer and fell asleep.

“Are you okay to walk or do you want to do your...weird space-bendy thing?” A few years ago, admitting that sort of weakness would’ve been risky, even in a closed room with his second best friend. The kid had sure done a number on them, and luckily it was holding out, though Frisk was halfway across the galaxy.

The rocket-boat wasn’t that far from his house, and it would’ve been a short drift from there to Alphys’s lab, but he was worn out, and more rapid gravity shifts would fuck him up. “Two orders of weird space-bendy thing, coming right up.” Keeping a firm hold on her arm so she wouldn’t get lost in the void, he opened the door to his lab and stepped into hers.

With what felt like the dregs of his energy, he shuffled to the nearest chair, clattering as he fell into the seat. It took a few minutes before his head stopped spinning and he could look up. “You redecorating or something?”

She was still shaking off the effects of his shortcut, but she jolted at his voice and followed his line of sight. Half-filled boxes and crates, trash bags, scuffs where one of her benches had stood, marks on the walls in the shape of posters that had been taken down.

“Oh, yeah. I did want to talk to you about that..” She looked a few seconds away from wringing her hands until her scales fell off, and she busied herself at the fridge. With more monsters heading to the human settlement and its apparently bountiful supplies, rations weren’t nearly as tight. He wasn’t looking forward to helping with the crops and food prep once the regular workcrew had all moved on, but at least they wouldn’t starve.

She set a soda and a noodle cup in front of him, and by now she wasn’t scandalized by how he lifted out the rectangle of noodles and crunched into it raw, instead of waiting on hot water. From the way she meticulously prepared her own, she was stalling, but if he pushed Alphys, she was liable to shut down.

Once he had made it through half of the noodles, it didn’t feel like every word would risk his skull toppling off. His bones still ached, but that could last for days. “So what’s all this about?”

She paused, noodles halfway to her mouth, then lowered them back into the cup. When she spoke, her stutter was heavier than he had heard in ages—between Undyne’s love, Frisk’s encouragement, and the slowly dropping population on the monster colony, her social anxiety had seemed a lot more manageable. And here he was, giving it a comeback.

“...There’s a shuttle scheduled for next week. I’m on the passenger list.” Taking his silence as an accusation, the rest of her words spilled out in a frantic mess. “I miss Undyne, okay?! Is it so wrong to want to see my new girlfriend in person and not just on a laggy screen for a few minutes a week? Or my other friends? Plus they want monster scientists’ input, over there. I haven’t been doing anything but watching cartoons and fucking around since the barrier dropped, I should at least use my few talents for something worthwhile. And—”

“Al. Seriously, good for you. Of course you should take the next ship out. Get a better lab, blow them away with your engineering, fuck a fish. Why wouldn’t I be happy for you?”

“Sans... There’s still an empty slot on the passenger list. I want you to come too.” Her chopsticks were trembling, splattering her labcoat with broth, but her expression was firm.

He grinned, feeling anything but cheerful. Out of everyone, she knew best why he couldn’t do that. “Nah, you know me. Not done with this patch of asteroids—”

“Sans! Listen to me, okay? Maybe your stupid machine would still work without the magic in this part of space. I know that’s the reason you’re staying, isn’t it?”

“And if it doesn’t work?” Losing Boss was bad enough, but never being able to see Pap again... That was too much, not after literal years of first meetings and falling in love. What if the temporal bullshit stopped naturally when he wouldn’t be around to see it? What if he missed his chance to be part of Pap’s future?

“If it doesn’t, come anyway. I know you’re in love, but this isn’t healthy. This guy can never love you back properly, and honestly I worry about you doing this all the time. You’re just projecting onto this guy because your brother—”

“Alphys. _Drop it._ ” He hated using the Judge voice on her, a wisp of red and yellow floating out of his socket, but some things weren’t meant to be said. (By now, he looked at Pap and saw _him_ , not Boss. It wasn’t the same at all.)

It was enough to make her change tracks, but she didn’t stop talking. “It’s not only because of him. You’re a skeleton, Sans. The human settlement has proper gravity through the whole thing, not pockets like here, _and_ better food. You’re not an idiot, you know what low gravity does to bone density, and you should’ve been one of the first people out.” By now, she was crying, making no effort to hide it as she stared at him. “Please, that spot is only going to stay open for a few days, and if you don’t take it, someone else will. I don’t want to leave here not knowing if... if I’ll ever see you again...”

That was the last words she could force out before she began sobbing in earnest, and he slipped out of his chair to reach out to her, her claws tangling in his sweater as she pulled him into a damp hug. “I bet I can’t get you to promise you’ll go with me, r-r-right?” Alphys gasped out, after a few minutes of trying to control her breathing.

“I can’t say I’m gonna abandon him like that. It’d be like asking you to leave Undyne forever.”

“For one person you’d be losing, you’d regain a bunch more, people who can be a part of your life for real. If you can’t see that...” She detached, wiping her face against the collar of her lab coat. “Maybe you should go. Please, at least consider it?”

He could’ve insisted on staying, could’ve promised and hugged for a few hours and stuck around. He was probably leaving his best friend to cry until she made herself sick. “I’ll think about it,” he offered, and it wasn’t enough for her, not by a long shot.

-

No matter how static-filled and laggy video communications were between the monster and human settlements, Boss always called him, same time and day every week, like clockwork. After he had gotten a hang of the time difference between home and Pap’s world, he made sure that he was almost never away when Boss’s call came in. If he didn’t respond, Boss would leave a recorded message, but he couldn’t stand how disappointed he would sound.

It was slow, and occasionally their words wouldn’t come out, and oftentimes Boss would only hear what he said ten seconds later, but he loved their talks. His brother was doing fantastic over there: going to school (undecided on a major, taking remedial classes for all the stuff he’d never learned as a kid) and working part-time (waiting tables, which sounded awful to Red but apparently was great for meeting new people). These days, he didn’t wear his armor much anymore, and he had repurposed the dangling crystals from his pauldrons for bracelets and a pendant that chimed with each movement.

“Hey. Bro, what’s with your wrist?” Boss had been gesturing along as he explained his adventures in ravioli making, and his sweater sleeve slid down enough to see the white of a bandage and not bone. There wasn’t any magic residue bleeding through, but he really wasn’t comforted by that. Boss was a big boy, he could protect himself, but...

“This? Oh, it’s nothing, I assure you. It was a tiny accident, nothing to worry about.”

“If it’s so tiny, then it wouldn’t be a big deal to tell me, right?”

“It’s hardly worth the words, brother,” Boss said with a haughty sniff. “A very brief disagreement with one of the other inhabitants of this section of the ship. It was over before anything of consequence could happen.” It reminded him of a babybones Papyrus trying to hide his bruises under his sleeves, not wanting him to know that the other kids were shoving him around.

“A _human_ inhabitant, I’m guessing? Someone broke your wrist, and it’s not ‘of consequence?’ Not convinced, Boss.” Who had it been? Sounded like the monster integration was going less smoothly than everyone there was claiming. Why the fuck wasn’t Undyne watching his back?

“It’s not broken, merely a brief dislocation that’s already on the mend. I hardly need the bandage, but the healer insisted! I, of course, am a model patient and agreed to it.” He made a mental note to send a message to Undyne. He could probably trust her to tell him if the human ship wasn’t actually as utopic as people claimed.

Boss glanced away from the screen, though Red wasn’t sure if it was to glance around for eavesdroppers or to hide the rust-colored flush spreading over his cheekbones. “Sans.... Please, don’t let this dissuade you from coming here. You know I’ll keep you safe, don’t you?”

“’Course you would. Never doubted that for a second.” But no one was protecting Boss.

“Please, keep that in mind, especially now; one of my most trusted and covert sources has told me that you might take the next ship here, Sans! Can you really manage packing up the house by yourself in time?” Not that there was much left in the house, after Boss had taken most of it with him. And he had pre-boxed a lot of Red’s stuff for him, probably hoping that would be enough to get him on the next ship. That had been ages ago, and he was still living out of those boxes.

(It didn’t slip past him how quickly Boss backed away from uncomfortable topics and into safe nagging territory.)

“I’ve been thinking about it, yeah. Haven’t really made up my mind yet, but there’s a good chance. It’s starting to get boring over here, hearing about all the cool shit that’s over there.” And, possibly, the horrible shit underneath all the shiny perks.

“Of course you’d get bored without my presence. There’s already a room set up for you, and a far better mattress, so you don’t have to bother packing your ratty one.” Was it just him, or did Boss sound _pleading_? Trying to remove all the obstacles between them, not knowing what the biggest ones really were. “Everything’s ready for when you do finally get here.”

There was a faint yip offscreen, and Boss huffed as he stooped down and straightened up with the dog in his arms. “Your terror of a canine misses you too. I assure you we can be patient, _can’t we,_ Toby?” The dog let out a tiny bark, wagging furiously at the sight of Red. It was amazing Boss could keep a hold of it.

“Not too patient, alright? You guys won’t have to wait much longer.” Should there have been a promise tacked on the end? Did he believe him after the last few conversations they’d had about him coming? But, then again, Boss hadn’t been fucking _maimed_ during those past talks.

“I certainly hope so. Please keep me posted on when you’ll be arriving, so I’ll know to freshen up your new room and come greet you at the terminal. Alright? I love you.”

Even after this long, hearing that felt like someone had slipped their hand up his shirt, took a fistful of ribs, and twisted. Boss wasn’t _stupid_ , he must have known the disgusting thoughts his brother used to carry around with him. It had been a house with thin walls, no matter how quiet he had kept himself. No one knew his soul better than Boss, but he still believed he deserved “I love you.”

“’Course I will, bro. You’ll be the first to know. I... love you too.” The dog yipped, and he turned to it, glad for the tiny distraction. “And you too, mutt. I miss you both, and I’ll be home soon.”

-

He shouldn’t have been happy about Pap being in a month cycle. Wasn’t it more cruel to flaunt that much time in front of him and then snatch it away? But distracting himself with Pap was better than sleeping the day away, or moving a single sock into a half-full box and then out again. There was still time before the shuttle deadline and he still had days to decide, so why not join Pap on his newest timeloop?

Memorizing the tiniest details of a whole town and its people for a month was near impossible, even if he avoided Pap the first cycle to take perfect, sleepless notes, so these days, he went without it. By now, a few slipups were worth spending more time with him. A week was ‘unsure fling’ territory, but with a month, he could date Pap in earnest. For a little while, it would feel like he was really getting somewhere.

When he had a month, it gave him enough time to build trust between them, so when he whispered to Pap that he wanted to tell him a secret, he leaned in, instead of laughing nervously and making excuses to leave, expecting something creepy. The café was half full, but they were alone in their booth, and if he kept his voice down, no one would overhear.

“You really sure you can handle this? It’s a doozy.” He drained the last inch of his coffee—something about the way they made it here was miles above the burnt caffeine sludge from home. It gave him the shakes, but it was worth it.

“I’ve handled plenty about you, this is nothing new—tell me about the skeletons in your closet,” Pap said with a smirk.

With Pap that close, he stole a quick kiss. Not for luck—after this many repetitions, he knew the outcome—but because he had tiny orange freckles only visible from that close, and it was charming as fuck.

“The secret, which you’ll have to keep hush hush so the monarchy doesn’t drag me away so they can do a cover-up... The secret is that I’m an alien.”

Pap snorted into his hoodie sleeve. “So you’ve got a spaceship? Abduct people?” He leaned in close enough that their foreheads touched. “Gonna abduct and probe me, Mr. Alien?”

“In order: yes, if they asked nicely but I’m monogamous on abductions these days, and of course. I can prove it to you.” He held out a hand, and Pap hopped out of the booth, probably expecting to be led to a space-themed date or prank. Or alien roleplay sex.

Landing his machine here was tricky, rather than letting it send him forward and waiting until this world spat him back out, but there wasn’t another way to get Pap back with him. He didn’t want to test out whether the time loop would erase any damage it got because some monster kid stumbled across it and decided to poke around. That or it falling into the hands of the time anomaly.

He had settled for an alcove in Waterfall, conveniently behind a waterfall. If someone did manage to wade back there, he had set up a basic camouflage, so someone would have to seriously look to see that there was something off about the stone wall. It was only a few minutes of walking, hand in hand with Pap as he made jokes about livestock mutilations and weather balloons. He looked a little bemused at all the wading they had to do and squawked at the face full of water he got while going through the waterfall, but he willingly followed Red into the alcove.

“The fuck?” Once he deactivated the camo, his movements a little more theatrical than necessary, Pap leaned in to examine it. “This... looks kinda like the machine I have in the basement, just... not half-finished. It’s fancy sure, and the lights are a nice touch, but an actual spaceship? I’m not convinced.”

(Earlier on, he had entertained thoughts of fixing Pap’s machine up for him, but it never lasted through the loops, and if it had, he wouldn’t have remembered what to do with it. No easy solutions here.)

“Well, let’s get the convincing on the road, then.” He typed in the combination lock and swept the door open. “Bit of a tight fit in here, but we can get us both in if I sit on your lap. Come in here, and I’ll show you the stars.”

“I mean, if ‘show me the stars’ means a cramped blowjob, I’m willing to try,” Stretch said, but he was grinning as he eagerly climbed in, taking up pretty much all of the bench himself. Red climbed inside and took a seat on his lap, as promised, but he only gave a few teasing wiggles before his focus went to the control panel, double checking that the everything was working properly.

“Last chance to back out. You really wanna see the stars?” He looked over his shoulder at Pap, whose face was taken over by longing.

“More than anything.” If he waited any longer, that longing would turn to disappointment, papered over with cheerfulness at the coming ‘prank,’ and that was an expression he never wanted to see on Pap’s face. Red pressed the final button.

The machine began to shake around them, and Pap clung to him with one arm, gripping onto the bench with the other. It lasted only about fifteen seconds before coming to a halt. He wondered if Pap could already tell the difference, the sound of the falling water gone. Pulling at Pap’s hand, he hurried to open the door and tug him out.

“What the hell,” he said, as they stepped into Red’s lab. “Not that a teleporter isn’t neat and all, but I was promised stars. Where are we?”

“Oh, wait a sec and you’ll get them, impatient brat.” For all of his excitement, he braced himself as he led Pap to the door. He knew how this next part went. The door slid open, and he immediately wreathed Pap in blue magic, holding him down. Didn’t need him drifting away yet.

“Hey, why are you—” He didn’t get the rest out before his head tipped back, staring up and up and up. “Is that... is that really—?”

He never held the panic attacks against Pap. Seeing stars for the “first time” must have felt as intense as it had for him the first time he visited Pap’s world and realized he was literally inside a planet, feeling cavern walls pressing in on him. He had lived with that openness all his life, but for someone new, it was overwhelming. He held close to Pap, rubbing his back in the hope that it would calm his wheezing breaths. Using blue magic helped a lot; the first few times, when he didn’t have any gravity tethering him down, he had completely lost it, near sobbing that he was going to float away into the abyss, not recognizing the minimal gravity and the shield above them that would have prevented it.

“So... so you really are an alien,” Pap choked out, orange tears floating away from his face. “I can’t believe... Fuck, I can’t believe I’m crying about something so cool. Fucking stupid of me, huh.”

“Take your time, buddy. Nobody’s judging.” Another perk of being one of the last people out: no one was there to wonder who this obvious outsider was. In the past, he had to sneak Pap around. “The stars aren’t gonna go away if you need a while.”

The terror picked up again when he looked up and realized that Red was floating a bit, and he cut it off at the pass. “Deep breaths, okay? These asteroids do have a little gravity, plus more because of all the magic, so you’re not gonna fly off into space, and I’m not gonna drop the blue magic until you tell me to.” He pointed up. “See that shimmery light? It’s a shield, just in case. Keeps everyone in if they happened to jump really high or some shit.” It was better not to explain that it used to be a Barrier, like his. Let it be some shiny space utopia.

“It’s amazing,” Pap said, rubbing at his cheekbones. “I’ve never seen anything prettier in my life.” His smile was shaky but radiant, and he squeezed Red’s hand tighter.

Maybe it was because he’d done it so many times before, but Pap took easily to moving in low gravity once he calmed down, barely needing blue magic to pull himself in the right direction. Red held onto his hand, leading him onward and not worrying about being seen. After Grillby had left Snowdin, eager to set up a new shop, almost everyone else in town followed.

“So, where’s the probing gonna go down?” It was better off that he was leading Pap, who had his head craned up, staring at the stars. If it wasn’t for Red, he’d probably be bouncing off houses and signposts.

“You can look at the stars pretty much everywhere, but one of the observation decks gets you a better view. Can show you some constellations, really make it romantic...”

“Is that okay? Are we gonna get walked in on?” Pap glanced around as they passed into Cometfall, and no doubt he was wondering why he hadn’t seen anyone despite passing a dozen houses.

“Nah, it’s real private-like, don’t you worry. Nobody’s gonna pop in to watch.” In past tender fuckings, he had tried to get Alphys to promise to leave the observatory cameras alone when he took Pap there—not much point in trying to hide it from her when he could appeal to her friendship instead. Never really knew if it worked or not, but he tried to hope. These days, he was pretty sure she was packing up her cameras, not watching them.

Pap didn’t look as worried once Red tapped in the code to lock the door behind them, instead turning to look at the section of space laid out around them, through the glass walls. “And here I thought we were gonna try zero-g sex,” he sighed, shaking his head.

“Nah, all the buildings have normal gravity, so I’m going easy on you. I don’t wanna take an accidental dick to the socket because you can’t handle low gravity.” He spread out a blanket from his inventory and gestured towards it. “You can be on bottom, so you can see the stars.”

“You make it sound like I’m gonna be gaping up at the sky mindlessly, not noticing that you’re fucking me.” He settled down on the blanket, patting his lap, and Red eagerly took his place there.

“I’ll have to earn your attention, then, right?” Red said, mouth beside Pap’s skull, close enough to kiss. His hands and mouth began to wander. Soon Pap was laid out on his back, wriggling out of his shorts as Red knelt over him, beginning to strip out of everything but his necklace.

“Oh,” Pap breathed as he looked down at the glow peeking through the fabric of Red’s shorts. “How do you wanna do this?”

“You asked for a probing, didn’t you? I’m not _great_ at being in charge, but you wanna lay back, look for the constellations while you take my cock...”

“Thought probing was ass-only,” Pap said thoughtfully, lifting up on his elbows. “Can we do that next?”

“Like either of us has the stamina for both.” He kicked off his shorts, sending them skidding across the floor. His cock was already hard from seeing Pap under him. “I’ll put on the agenda for now, but that pussy of yours is at the top of the list.” When Pap pulled his shorts down, there was already a damp spot growing on his boxers, and looking at it drove his arousal through the roof. Red barely waited long enough for them to be pulled away before he dropped down to Pap’s side, making sure he wasn’t obscuring the view as he attacked his vertebrae.

“Couldn’t wait a sec, could you?” Pap said faintly, and he could hear the damp sounds of him fingering himself as Red left bite marks over his neck and clavicle. He couldn’t ever get over how easy it was to mark him, how smooth and pretty most of his bones were. “We’re gonna stain the fuck out of your blanket, so you know.”

“Trust me, that’s not high up on the list of things I care about right now,” he said, punctuating it with a long lick up the length of his neck. In his peripheral, he could see Pap taking three fingers easy, slipping in without effort. His long legs were spread wide, a smear of orange on one femur.

“Red, if you don’t get that cock up in here _now_ , I’m gonna explode, seriously. Please?”

“All you had to do was ask nicely, sweetheart. Wanted to go at your pace, but if you’re ready...” He climbed on top of Pap and settled between his trembling legs. It only took a moment of rubbing his length on his folds before Pap was glaring at him and bucking up, trying to catch the tip in his hole, so he decided to be merciful.

He didn’t want to blow his load immediately, but he wasn’t sure how long he could last, with Pap so soaked it felt like he had a waterfall in there. It was hard enough resisting the urge to slam into him. Not yet, not until he begged for it.

Pap might have been staring up at the stars above them, but in no way had he checked out. He rocked his hips up into Red with enough force to bruise them both and clawed at the back of his spine, those blunted fingertips still leaving scratch marks that he hoped would stay visible for a day or two. Getting a proper scar from him had been out of the question so far—a few months of dating at most wasn’t enough time to bring up branding, especially for someone as soft as Pap—so he took what he could get.

“Oh—oh, _fuck_ ,” Pap breathed out, clinging tighter onto him and, for the first time since they started, looking away from the cosmos around him to kiss Red. His walls tightened around Red’s cock, and he could feel warmth spilling out between them. He leaned away from the kiss to whine with overstimulation when Red tried to move, so he pulled out, intending to jerk off into his hand until Pap grabbed onto his wrist. “You... can finish on me, if you want.” He gestured down at his pussy, gingerly holding his folds open for a second before even that seemed too uncomfortable.

It was as hot as it had been the first time Pap had pulled that move out of nowhere. Hearing that made his cock throb, and he needed only a few hurried thrusts before he was spilling hot streams of magic over Pap’s waiting folds. His spine arched, leaning his pelvis up into it, and Red could see his hole practically twitching. “You like that, baby?”

He moaned out an affirmative, stroking his clit through the mess with the lightest touch he could manage. “It’s so warm, fuck, I feel like I’m gonna come again...” And he did, writhing against the blanket and staring up at Red with starry sockets, gasping with each tentative movement of his fingers but unable to stop himself.

It took a while for him to compose himself enough to talk. “You, uh. Are you gonna take fluid samples or something? For study?” He stared down at himself, at the mess oozing out and off of him and soaking into the blanket.

Red snickered, dropping down beside him. “Nah, I don’t have anything on me to collect it. Guess we’ll have to try later, huh?”

“I’m holding you to that,” Pap said. “Fuck, you have no idea how cool this is to me. I’ve read so much about the stars, but to actually see them? ...And the sex was nice too, obviously.”

“Starting to bruise my ego here, sweetheart.” But as he said it, he snuggled up against Pap’s side. “I bet you read human books about space, right? We’ve got our own constellations up here, want me to point them out?”

He turned his head so quickly Red could hear his vertebrae popping. “Of course?!”

“There’s the Wyvern, and down and to the right of it is the Angel’s wings, and...” He didn’t want to look over as Pap’s excited questions and jokes trailed off into quiet with a tiny hint of static, but he refused to miss this part. With their hips pressed together, he could already feel the cracks spreading through his bones. Time was up.

It was harder when Pap was awake for his world resetting itself; no chance for a postcoital nap when he was this excited about stargazing. At the very least, Red had learned to time their fucking so that Pap wouldn’t vanish mid-thrust; he could get a nice orgasm before everything erased, right? And they had finished early enough that he wouldn’t literally fall apart when Red was still inside him. He still had nightmares about that.

The whole time, Pap kept his eyes on the stars and his hand in Red’s, as layers of his phalanges flaked away until there wasn’t anything left to hold. Was he coherent enough to know what was happening? Was there some part of him that was aware and terrified about his sudden paralysis and disintegration? Or maybe his mind went first and spared him from all of it.

“And that one...” Red tried to say, feeling like someone was stacking weights on his chest, and then standing on the pile of them. “That one up there is the Lovers, see? They’re holding hands, like us. There was some legend about two people being star-crossed, a millennia or so back, but I can’t remember the details...” He pointed blindly at the spot where the constellation was, still staring at Pap’s face. Had his eyelights flickered at that?

It was impossible to keep talking after that, and he could feel tears welling up, his sockets burning. If Pap wouldn’t remember, did he really have to stay strong for him? What good did it do?

Maybe that was why he kept coming back: to get a chance to see Pap whole again, so that his last memory wouldn’t be this.

The clatter of his jaw falling off was almost too much to handle, and he had to resist the urge to turn his face away and hide. His ribcage collapsed in on itself, ribs scattering and dissolving, and with that last mutilation he was gone. If it wasn’t for the wrinkles on the blanket and the stain of Red’s come, there was nothing left to show that he had been there at all, even the drips of his orange arousal vanishing. Pap’s smell of honey and cigarettes lasted a moment longer, but then that was gone too.

Without Pap’s body heat, a chill set in, and he hurried to redress, ignoring the wet spot on the crotch of his shorts. Did it really matter, when there wasn’t anyone to see his sloppy, jizz-covered walk home? His shorts squishing underneath him, he dropped to the floor, pulling his jacket closer around him. There would be time to clean up and float back through the empty streets, but for now...

For now, he watched the constellation of the Lovers, bell clutched in his fist tightly enough that the edges of it stung his palm, thinking of going home.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Part two took.......so long................ Writing space stuff is hard. Type, I hope it's okay?! I only want to write the best for you.   
> (ɔˆ ³(ˆ⌣ˆc)  
> Any inaccuracies can't be held against me because there's magic.


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